227879: Is it essential to form a specific intention (niyyah) for tawaf?

I did Hajj , following what others were doing, several years ago, i.e., I had not learned all the rituals and the order in which they were to done. Allah blessed me by enabling me to do ‘umrah before Hajj. I remember that we started tawaf on the upper level, and I was following my family and doing what they did. I did not realise that we had started tawaf at first; in other words, I started to perform the ritual without realising what I was doing, and for a little while I thought that we were still walking in the midst of the crowd. Does that affect the validity of the act of worship, or is this waswaas?

Published Date: 2017-08-10

Praise
be to Allah

It is not
essential to form a specific intention (niyyah) for tawaf or sa‘i or any of
the rituals of Hajj; rather the general intention is sufficient, namely the
intention to perform Hajj or ‘umrah when entering ihram.

Al-Haafiz Jalaal
ad-Deen as-Suyooti said:

With regard to
acts of worship that are composed of several actions, it is sufficient to
form the intention at the beginning, and there is no need for a new
intention for each action, because the initial intention includes all of
that. This applies to acts of worship such as wudoo’ and prayer, and also
Hajj. There is no need to form a specific intention for tawaf, sa‘i and
standing (in ‘Arafah), according to the more correct opinion.

It should be
understood that the scholarly view that is most likely to be correct, in sha
Allah, is that tawaf does not need a specific intention, because the
intention to perform Hajj is sufficient and includes it. This applies to all
the actions of Hajj, such as standing in ‘Arafah, staying overnight in
Muzdalifah, sa‘i and stoning the Jamaraat. None of these actions requires a
specific intention, because the intention to perform Hajj includes all of
them. This is the view of most of the scholars, and the evidence for that is
clear, because the intention to perform an act of worship includes all of
its parts. Just as there is no need for a specific intention for every bow
and prostration in the prayer, because the intention to pray includes all of
that, by the same token there is no need for a specific intention for each
of the actions of Hajj, because the intention to perform Hajj includes all
of them.

One of the
things that the scholars quoted as evidence for that is the fact that if a
person were to stand in ‘Arafah without realising where he is, it would
still be valid, according to scholarly consensus. This was stated by
an-Nawawi.

In addition to
the view that is correct, in sha Allah, there are two other scholarly views:

The first is the
view of Abu ‘Ali ibn Abi Hurayrah, who was a Shaafa‘i; this view states that
specific actions such as tawaf, sa‘i and stoning the jamaraat require a
specific intention (niyyah), and matters that do not require a specific
action, and simply involve staying in a place, such as standing in ‘Arafah
and staying overnight in Muzdalifah, do not require a specific intention.

The second view
is that of Abu Ishaaq al-Marwazi, which is that none of the actions of Hajj
require a specific intention except tawaf, because it is a form of prayer,
and there should be an intention for prayer.

However, the
view that is most likely to be correct, in sha Allah, is the first one,
which is the view of the majority.

This is an
important matter. The intention should be formed immediately before doing
the act of worship, and it is recommended to be aware of this intention
throughout the prayer. This is preferable, so that the intention will
accompany the deed at every stage thereof. This is what is best, but if it
slips your mind during the prayer, does that harm you or not? No, it does
not harm you because your action is based on the initial intention.

Hence many of
the scholars – including Shaykh Muhammad ash-Shinqeeti (may Allah have mercy
on him) – were of the view that it is not essential to form the intention
for tawaf or sa‘i, because tawaf and sa‘i are part of an act of worship.
Just as you do not form a specific intention to bow or prostrate in the
prayer – because your general intention of performing prayer at the
beginning is sufficient – by the same token, with regard to tawaf and sa‘i,
and other parts of the acts of worship, from the time you said Labbayk
‘umratan [Here I am for ‘umrah] at the miqaat, you had already formed
the intention to do all the acts of ‘umrah.

Moreover, this
is easier for people. Many people – especially when it is very crowded –
enter the Sacred House and start tawaf, and they forget to form a specific
intention to perform the tawaf of ‘umrah or any other kind of tawaf, so if
we affirm that tawaf and sa’i are like bowing and prostration in the prayer,
and that the general intention includes them both, this will make things
much easier for people. This is the view of many of the scholars, and it is
the view that we favour. In fact many people get overwhelmed, especially
when they see the huge numbers of people [in the Haram], so they enter the
mosque with the intention of doing tawaf, without bringing to mind whether
it is for Hajj or ‘umrah, but they still formed the intention of doing tawaf,
because they came in order to do tawaf.

End quote from
the shaykh’s commentary on al-Kaafi (1/384).

Based on the
above, your tawaf was valid and you do not have to do anything else.

If what happened
to you was simply that you were uncertain after having finished the act of
worship, then no attention is to be paid to this uncertainty, because
uncertainty after having done an act of worship is of no significance, and
it comes under the heading of waswaas from the Shaytaan.